GhostBSD

GhostBSD is a user-friendly desktop operating system based on TrueOS (which is, in turn, based on FreeBSD's development branch). The project's goal is to create an easy-to-use and familiar workspace that can be used at home or office and for data rescue. GhostBSD supports a number of popular lightweight desktop environments, including MATE, Xfce. It also provides FreeBSD's package management system, LibreOffice, LibreCAD, and Eclipse/Anjuta development environments for C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Jala and Python.

To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.

Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.

What are your thoughts on GhostBSD?Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
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Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 18.10Rating: 9Date: 2018-11-03Votes: 1

As a desktop-oriented BSD OS, it has the most beautiful desktop environment ever occured, pre-configured apperance sets such as Element style and Windowy style is out of box.
User experience is much more stable than common Linux desktop distributions. The power of ZFS is still not tested on GhostBSD, though I have experience on Solaris managing zpools, it is far not convenient on GhostBSD for not having a GUI tool as it is a desktop-oriented OS. And if it is installed on laptops, yet not having NetworkManager is a challenge for those beginners.
Driver support might follow most of the modern hardwares as GhostBSD uses TrueOS which based on FreeBSD 12 current.
The default outdated apperance of rEFI during boot process seems not matching the elegant desktop environment, so does the text based RC infomation. Adding a boot flash like macOS or elementaryOS will not be something difficult for experienced users, but it would be more attractive to desktop and laptop users when it is coming out of box.
The default office suite is just like any other open source OSes, FreeBSD repos and GhostBSD repos are both useable in GhostBSD, no reason for lack of apps. Medias can be played, codes can be typed and complied, web can be browsed, mail can be sent and received. But a GUI configure tool of repos would be more acceptable.
Display under ultra-high resolution such as 4K is not tested, while MATE 1.20 should support ultra-high resolution.
Apart from the buggy GhostBSD 11.1, the new GhostBSD 18.10 can be the choice for those who wants a UNIX-like workstation with desktop environment and much more robust kernel but does not prefer to Linux or other OS.

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Version: 11.1Rating: 8Date: 2018-09-24Votes: 2

I have HP Compaq 6715s laptop and Windows 10 and Linux won't work in it. Laptop is 10 years old. I bought it with Vista Basic when it was new. GhostBSD / FreeBSD works in it. Only sad thing is that I couldn't upgrade 11.1. version to 11.2 version of FreeBSD release. Linux won't work because of single core of AMD 64bit processor. Finally I got operating system that work in my laptop and I can still use it. Wlan and bluetooth won't work but xfce-GUI is working fine with 1280*800 resolution and everything else also. I'm quite happy with this OS distro.